Tag Archive

social justice

Project Showcase: “For Comfort and Convenience”: Poverty and Material Culture

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In a February blog post for History@Work, Kristin O’ Brassill-Kulfan asked public historians to think about the presentation of poverty in museum settings. That same month, the Wood County Historical Center (WCHC) in Bowling Green, Ohio opened a new exhibit titled For Comfort and Convenience: Public Charity in Ohio By Way of the Poor Farm. Read More

Public histories of poverty

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In his Congressional Gold Medal acceptance speech from 2013, Dr. Muhammad Yunus quipped that one day “soon we will visit the museum to see poverty.” Given that public historians interpret and document other social ills in museums and historic sites— sexism, racism, homophobia, ableism—where does poverty and its attendant questions of class fit in our interpretive plans? Read More

Project Showcase: (In)Visible Princeton

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As an institution older than the nation itself, Princeton University and its history often reflect social and political trends of the broader United States, as well as its patterns of exclusion and erasure. A new digital project, called (In)Visible Princeton, is one step toward confronting some of these historical injustices and helping Princeton reconcile the values of its past with the ones it embodies today. Read More

A different “birthright”: Exploring immigrant history in the birthplace of “America’s Immigrant Problem”

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In recent years, the debate over immigration and migration to the United States has been especially pronounced, with calls to end “invasions” of “illegal immigrants” from Latin America, build a border wall, institute a “Muslim travel ban,” refuse refugees seeking asylum, and rescind birthright citizenship.  Read More

Reflecting on repair: The 2019 Annual Meeting theme

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Ideally, a conference theme is broad enough to encompass the breadth of a field, yet specific enough to create cohesion and perhaps spark new synergies and connections within that field. Seth Bruggeman and Cathy Stanton, Program Committee co-chairs for the 2019 NCPH Annual Meeting in Hartford, Connecticut, reflect on how this year’s theme of “Repair Work” was developed and how it has shaped the program. Read More

Editors’ conversation on interpreting immigration, Part 2

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Editors’ Note: This is the second part of a two-part editorial conversation on interpreting immigration in public history.  Part 1 is available here.

AJL: How can public historians effectively take an intersectional approach to interpreting immigration? How can we bring different audiences and stakeholders together? Read More